Editing Muhammad (section)

===Islamic tradition===
{{Main|Muhammad in Islam}}

Following the attestation to the [[oneness of God]], the belief in Muhammad's prophethood is the main aspect of the [[Aqidah|Islamic faith]]. Every Muslim proclaims in the {{tlit|ar|[[Shahada]]}}: "I testify that there is no god but God, and I testify that Muhammad is a Messenger of God". The {{tlit|ar|Shahada}} is the basic creed or tenet of Islam. Islamic belief is that ideally the {{tlit|ar|Shahada}} is the first words a newborn will hear; children are taught it immediately and it will be recited upon death. Muslims repeat the shahadah in the call to prayer ({{tlit|ar|[[adhan]]}}) and the prayer itself. Non-Muslims wishing to [[convert to Islam]] are required to recite the creed.<ref>Farah 1994, p. 135.</ref>

[[File:Mohamed peace be upon him.svg|thumb|upright=0.8|Calligraphic rendering of "may God honor him and grant him peace", customarily added after Muhammad's name, encoded as a [[Typographic ligature|ligature]] at [[Unicode]] code point [[Arabic script in Unicode|U+FDFA]]<ref>{{Cite web |date=1 October 2009 |title=Arabic Presentation Forms-A |url=https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/Unicode-3.1/U31-FB50.pdf |access-date=9 May 2010 |website=The Unicode Standard, Version 5.2 |publisher=The Unicode Consortium |location=Mountain View, CA}}</ref> {{script|Arab|ﷺ}}]]

In Islamic belief, Muhammad is regarded as the last prophet sent by God.{{sfnm|Esposito|1998|1p=12|Nigosian|2004|2p=17}} Writings such as [[hadith]] and {{tlit|ar|[[Prophetic biography|sira]]}} attribute several miracles or supernatural events to Muhammad.<ref>A. J. Wensinck, ''Muʿd̲j̲iza'', [[Encyclopaedia of Islam]]. Vol. 7, p. 295</ref> One of these is the [[splitting of the Moon]], which according to earliest available {{tlit|ar|[[tafsir]]}} compilations is a literal splitting of the Moon.{{sfn|Brockopp|2010|p=47}}

The [[sunnah]] represents the actions and sayings of Muhammad preserved in hadith and covers a broad array of activities and beliefs ranging from religious rituals, personal hygiene, and burial of the dead to the mystical questions involving the love between humans and God. The sunnah is considered a model of emulation for pious Muslims and has to a great degree influenced the Muslim culture. Many details of major Islamic rituals such as daily prayers, the fasting and the annual pilgrimage are only found in the sunnah and not the Quran.<ref>''Muhammad'', Encyclopædia Britannica, p. 9.</ref>

[[File:Sahadah-Topkapi-Palace.jpg|thumb|The {{tlit|ar|[[Shahadah]]}} illustrated in [[Topkapı Palace]], [[Istanbul]], Turkey.]]

Muslims have traditionally expressed love and veneration for Muhammad. Stories of Muhammad's life, his intercession and of his miracles have permeated popular Muslim thought and poetry ({{tlit|ar|[[naʽat]]}}). Among Arabic odes to Muhammad, {{tlit|ar|[[Qasidat al-Burda]]}} ("Poem of the Mantle") by the Egyptian [[Sufi]] [[al-Busiri]] (1211–1294) is particularly well-known, and widely held to possess a healing, spiritual power.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stetkevych |first=Suzanne Pinckney |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F-nY3_DXo-gC&pg=PR12 |title=The mantle odes: Arabic praise poems to the Prophet Muḥammad |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-253-22206-0 |page=xii |access-date=27 January 2012}}</ref> The Quran refers to Muhammad as "a mercy ({{tlit|ar|rahmat}}) to the worlds".<ref>{{qref|21|107|b=y}}</ref>{{sfn|Buhl|Welch|1993}} The association of rain with mercy in Oriental countries has led to imagining Muhammad as a rain cloud dispensing blessings and stretching over lands, reviving the dead hearts, just as rain revives the seemingly dead earth.{{efn|See, for example, the Sindhi poem of Shah ʿAbd al-Latif}}{{sfn|Buhl|Welch|1993}} [[Muhammad's birthday]] is celebrated as a major feast throughout the [[Muslim world]], excluding [[Wahhabi]]-dominated Saudi Arabia where these public celebrations are discouraged.<ref>[[Seyyed Hossein Nasr]], Encyclopædia Britannica, ''Muhammad'', p. 13.</ref> When Muslims say or write the name of Muhammad, they usually follow it with the Arabic phrase {{tlit|ar|ṣallā llahu ʿalayhi wa-sallam}} (''may God honor him and grant him peace'') or the English phrase ''[[peace be upon him]]''.<ref>Ann Goldman, Richard Hain, Stephen Liben 2006, p. 212.</ref> In casual writing, the abbreviations SAW (for the Arabic phrase) or PBUH (for the English phrase) are sometimes used; in printed matter, a small calligraphic rendition is commonly used ({{lang|ar|ﷺ}}).

====<!--Please leave the following "anchor" here, as a number of pages link to this section using it (see WP:ANCHOR):--><span class="anchor" id="Islamic depictions of Muhammad"></span> Appearance and depictions====
{{Main|Depictions of Muhammad}}
Various sources present a probable description of Muhammad in the prime of his life. He was slightly above average in height, with a sturdy frame and wide chest. His neck was long, bearing a large head with a broad forehead. His eyes were described as dark and intense, accentuated by long, dark eyelashes. His hair, black and not entirely curly, hung over his ears. His long, dense beard stood out against his neatly trimmed mustache. His nose was long and aquiline, ending in a fine point. His teeth were well-spaced. His face was described as intelligent, and his clear skin had a line of hair from his neck to his navel. Despite a slight stoop, his stride was brisk and purposeful.{{sfn|Bennett|1998|p=36}} Muhammad's lip and cheek were ripped by a slingstone during the [[Battle of Uhud]].{{sfn|Gabriel|2014|p=120}}{{sfn|Rodinson|2021|p=181}} The wound was later [[Cauterization|cauterized]], leaving a scar on his face.{{sfn|Gabriel|2014|p=121}}

However, since the [[Aniconism in Islam|hadith prohibits the creation of images of sentient living beings]], Islamic religious art mainly focuses on the word.<ref name="Wagtendonk1987" />{{sfn|Esposito|2011|pp=14–15}} Muslims generally avoid [[depictions of Muhammad]], and instead decorate mosques with calligraphy, Quranic inscriptions, or geometrical designs.<ref name="Wagtendonk1987">{{Cite book |last=Wagtendonk |first=Kees |title=Effigies dei: essays on the history of religions |publisher=Brill |year=1987 |isbn=978-90-04-08655-5 |editor-last=van der Plas |editor-first=Dirk |pages=119–124 |chapter=Images in Islam |access-date=1 December 2011 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ops3AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA120}}</ref>{{sfn|Peters|2010|pp=159-161}} Today, the interdiction against images of Muhammad—designed to prevent worship of Muhammad, rather than God—is much more strictly observed in Sunni Islam (85–90% of Muslims) and [[Ahmadiyya]] Islam (1%) than among Shias (10–15%).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Safi |first=Omid |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s63i21E9dr8C |title=Memories of Muhammad |publisher=HarperCollins |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-06-123135-3 |page=32 |access-date=29 December 2011}}</ref> While both Sunnis and Shias have created images of Muhammad in the past,<ref name="Safi2011" /> Islamic depictions of Muhammad are rare.<ref name="Wagtendonk1987" /> They have mostly been limited to the private and elite medium of the miniature, and since about 1500 most depictions show Muhammad with his face veiled, or symbolically represent him as a flame.{{sfn|Peters|2010|pp=159–161}}<ref name="Bakker2009" />
[[File:Muhammad destroying idols - L'Histoire Merveilleuse en Vers de Mahomet BNF.jpg|thumb|Muhammad's entry into Mecca and the destruction of idols. Muhammad is shown as a flame in this manuscript. Found in Bazil's {{tlit|ar|Hamla-i Haydari}}, [[Jammu and Kashmir (princely state)|Jammu and Kashmir]], India, 1808.]]
The earliest extant depictions come from 13th century [[Sultanate of Rum|Anatolian Seljuk]] and [[Ilkhanid]] [[Persian miniature]]s, typically in literary genres describing the life and deeds of Muhammad.<ref name="Bakker2009" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Gruber |first=Christiane |title=Muqarnas |publisher=Brill |year=2009 |isbn=978-90-04-17589-1 |editor-last=Necipoglu |editor-first=Gulru |volume=26 |pages=234–235 |chapter=Between Logos (Kalima) and Light (Nur): Representations of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad in Islamic Painting |chapter-url=https://umich.academia.edu/ChristianeGruber/Papers/443477/_Between_Logos_Kalima_and_Light_Nur_Representations_of_the_Prophet_Muhammad_in_Islamic_Painting_ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120711133658/http://umich.academia.edu/ChristianeGruber/Papers/443477/_Between_Logos_Kalima_and_Light_Nur_Representations_of_the_Prophet_Muhammad_in_Islamic_Painting_ |archive-date=11 July 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> During the Ilkhanid period, when Persia's Mongol rulers converted to Islam, competing Sunni and Shia groups used visual imagery, including images of Muhammad, to promote their particular interpretation of Islam's key events.<ref name="Elverskog2010" /> Influenced by the [[Buddhist]] tradition of representational religious art predating the Mongol elite's conversion, this innovation was unprecedented in the Islamic world, and accompanied by a "broader shift in Islamic artistic culture away from abstraction toward representation" in "mosques, on tapestries, silks, ceramics, and in glass and metalwork" besides books.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Elverskog |first=Johan |url=https://archive.org/details/buddhismislamons0000elve |title=Buddhism and Islam on the Silk Road |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-8122-4237-9 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/buddhismislamons0000elve/page/164 164]–169 |url-access=registration}}</ref> In the Persian lands, this tradition of realistic depictions lasted through the [[Timurid dynasty]] until the [[Safavids]] took power in the early 16th century.<ref name="Elverskog2010" /> The Safavaids, who made Shia Islam the state religion, initiated a departure from the traditional Ilkhanid and Timurid artistic style by covering Muhammad's face with a veil to obscure his features and at the same time represent his luminous essence.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gruber |first=Christiane |title=The Art and Material Culture of Iranian Shi'ism: Iconography and Religious Devotion in Shi'i Islam |publisher=I. B. Tauris |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-84885-168-9 |editor-last=Khosronejad |editor-first=Pedram |pages=46–47 |chapter=When Nubuvvat encounters Valayat: Safavid painting of the "Prophet" Mohammad's Mi'raj, c. 1500–50 |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/1176067 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170102103545/http://www.academia.edu/1176067/When_Nubuvvat_Encounters_Valayat_Safavid_Paintings_of_the_Prophet_Muhammads_Miraj_ca._1500-50 |archive-date=2 January 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> Concomitantly, some of the unveiled images from earlier periods were defaced.<ref name="Elverskog2010">{{Cite book |last=Elverskog |first=Johan |url=https://archive.org/details/buddhismislamons0000elve |title=Buddhism and Islam on the Silk Road |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-8122-4237-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/buddhismislamons0000elve/page/167 167] |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Edwards |first1=Elizabeth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bhxPW9B8s1oC&pg=PA344 |title=Visual sense: a cultural reader |last2=Bhaumik |first2=Kaushik |publisher=Berg |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-84520-741-0 |page=344}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ruggles |first=D. Fairchild |author-link=D. Fairchild Ruggles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Te5QRi35W5EC&pg=PA56 |title=Islamic Art and Visual Culture: An Anthology of Sources |publisher=John Wiley and Sons |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-4051-5401-7 |page=56}}</ref> Later images were produced in [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] Turkey and elsewhere, but mosques were never decorated with images of Muhammad.<ref name="Safi2011">{{Cite news |last=Safi |first=Omid |author-link=Omid Safi |date=5 May 2011 |title=Why Islam does (not) ban images of the Prophet |url=http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2010/05/why_islam_does_not_ban_images_of_the_prophet.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120202195337/http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2010/05/why_islam_does_not_ban_images_of_the_prophet.html |archive-date=2 February 2012 |access-date=27 December 2011 |newspaper=[[Washington Post]]}}</ref> Illustrated accounts of the night journey ({{tlit|ar|mi'raj}}) were particularly popular from the Ilkhanid period through the Safavid era.<ref name="Boozari2010" /> During the 19th century, [[Iran]] saw a boom of printed and illustrated {{tlit|ar|mi'raj}} books, with Muhammad's face veiled, aimed in particular at illiterates and children in the manner of [[graphic novels]]. Reproduced through [[lithography]], these were essentially "printed manuscripts".<ref name="Boozari2010">{{Cite book |last=Boozari |first=Ali |title=The Prophet's ascension: cross-cultural encounters with the Islamic mi'rāj tales |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-253-35361-0 |editor-last=Gruber |editor-first=Christiane J. |pages=252–254 |chapter=Persian illustrated lithographed books on the miʻrāj: improving children's Shi'i beliefs in the Qajar period |editor-last2=Colby |editor-first2=Frederick Stephen |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sjLHirJmvPUC&pg=PA252}}</ref> Today, millions of historical reproductions and modern images are available in some Muslim-majority countries, especially Turkey and Iran, on posters, postcards, and even in coffee-table books, but are unknown in most other parts of the Islamic world, and when encountered by Muslims from other countries, they can cause considerable consternation and offense.<ref name="Safi2011" /><ref name="Bakker2009">{{Cite book |last=Bakker |first=Freek L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4KNSp-uEO18C&pg=PA207 |title=The challenge of the silver screen: an analysis of the cinematic portraits of Jesus, Rama, Buddha and Muhammad|date=2009 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-16861-9 }}</ref>